POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — Family members of a Venezuelan woman detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gathered outside the ICE detention facility in Pompano Beach Thursday, calling for her release.
Claudia Caglianone’s family said she was detained earlier this month at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
“When people hear about detainees, the picture that comes to mind is somebody that they’ve been told to fear,” said her cousin, Gabriel Dominguez. “When I think of that, I think of a young woman who spent the majority of her life trying to do the right thing.”
The family said Caglianone moved to the United States in 2017, applied for asylum shortly after arriving and received Temporary Protected Status in 2023 while her asylum case remains pending.
“So here we are, standing together and doing the very thing for her that she’s done for so many of us — to show up,” Dominguez said.
He also called his cousin “living proof that the reality is much more complicated than any narrative that could be painted.”
The family said Caglianone spent time at the Miramar detention facility before being transferred to the Pompano Beach facility.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited the facility on behalf of the family.
She said she had no concerns about the conditions inside but remains worried about those being held there.
“I am very concerned that there are 671 people in this facility that shouldn’t be here, that should not have been detained in the first place,” Wasserman Schultz said.
“We’ll continue to show up until we bring her home,” Dominguez said.
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